Google Map of Uchinoura Space Centre

The Uchinoura Space Centre (USC) launches sounding rockets and scientific satellites and manages tracking and data.
An observation deck for launch experiments is open to the public.
The area of USC, 71 ha in total, are mostly hilly. Facilities for launching rockets, telemetry, tracking and command stations for rockets and satellites, and optical observation posts are on site, all prepared by flattening the tops of several hills and connected to each other by road.
The space centre was established in Uchinoura (now Kimotsuki), Kagoshima prefecture, in February 1962 as part of the Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, when the original facility in Iwaki (now Yuri-Honjo), Akita prefecture, was closed down.
In 1964, the space centre became part of the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, University of Tokyo; in 1981 it became an independent research facility, the Kagoshima Space Centre (KSC), attached to the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). Its name was changed to the Uchinoura Space Centre (USC) when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was formed.